You can't see it too good in this picture, but I wanted to show the progression of time from the first to the last flower. The days are marked in yellow chalk {well, digital chalk marks} the photos began on a Thursday, ending on a Sunday.

{scalloped edge paper is from a kit by amber clegg at the scrapartist site, the calender is downloaded from the internet, but not sure what site}

8/23/07

But first: There are several things I promised myself I absolutely needed to get done before the kids head back to school so I've not been in the blogging or crafting mood -- but oh so many thoughts running through my head. Still having fun keeping up with the"daily something" challenge from Ali's blog. As long as I keep it simple and it's fun, I do it. When it becomes frightful to open a glue stick -- well then I know its time to move to something else.

So with all I have floating around in my head I thought the word for my life this week {frankly, every week} would have to be Balance. And as I went over to check on the challenge over at OLW I saw that they had picked that very same word for the journaling/scrapbook challenge. Cool.

So here's the, a funny thing happened on the way to blogger, part: a visit to Etsy and the OLW blog were my first stops tonight. I got distracted, as I usually do, and I found this woman's blog. It was nice to see that I wasn't alone in some of my thinking. Thru her blog I landed on one called "delightful blogs" and then another, and another, you know how the story goes. Eventually getting back here to change some stuff around in my own blog. When I realized that I had never done a search on blogger for blogs with similar interests {duh} I just usually find them on my own. So it dawns on me to click on the "Rochester" tag and up come some 995 {or more} bloggers from Rochester. Okay -- I admit to reading the first 3 or 4 pages before I finally saw one that interested me -- so first it was her, then her. And here's the funny thing --- the thing I had been hoping for since last year, No, anxiously waiting for, was there blogging right before my eyes. Had I gone to look for it on purpose I wouldn't have found it - but through a collection of smart, artful blogs there it was. I love that little connection that is felt as soon I begin reading another's blog......

Anyway...

Finally Rochester will have its very own version of the craft revolution -- craftivism --- read all about it here on their site if you are interested. "Second Storie} indie market" will have its very first show in September. I for one am thrilled to have this finally hit Rochester. And I know there are lots of others feeling like this out there too. Very exciting! Not that we don't have our share of wonderful craft fairs all summer and into the fall, but this one will be an extremely cool addition.

Doing the happy dance!

The other funny thing was that on another occasion, months ago, while I was looping through Etsy I discovered one of their vendors that will be featured and just fell in love with her letter pressed invitations and the designs on her postcards. Can we say swoon?

Full circle. How's about that. Start in Rochester, bebop all over the blog-filled internet only to end up back to a Rochester connection. That's cool. As a side note, this is all very "ahhh, moment" for me {I heart Etsy} because I someday hope to actually open a shop on Etsy.

8/16/07

..Brings back many memories of summer when I was as a teenager visiting Italy with my mom. Although I think this one was taken during the winter Christmas festivities. This is taken in the small town in Italy where my parents and familiy are from. Beginning August 15th the town {as many small and rural towns in Italy and Europe do} begins some annual summer festival -- Le Feste. Many people are on vacation {le vacanze} the whole month of August. Their town in particular sees many visitors during this time. People come from the larger cities to relax in the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside. They begin decorating the streets with lights on wires, suspending them above street level so the whole main street looks like its sorrounded by sparkling little jewels. It's very romantic to take a stroll through these street lights. Maybe because we don't do this here where I live -- but I think its just very pretty. My mom and I were looking up some information online the other day and I showed her this site. I love it when she sees old and new pictures of the town where she grew up. Every detail is remembered and the stories start to flow. Its good to hear them, even if its over and over again, we have to pass these stories down.

8/15/07

I had the bees a little mad cause I was right in there with the camera lens and they couldn't do their bee-pollinatin' thing.

this is also part of a little personal project I have been doing where I try to take a picture a day {sometimes more} of the same flower or flowers from first bud to full bloom. she's still in early bloom here, some of the petals are growing bigger on one side, some are still a little skinny and lopsided - it just gets prettier. kind of like people, as we "bloom" we go through phases. we have an early growing {or maybe an ugly duckling, awkward} stage, then suddenly we begin to bloom full and lovely. yep, I'm totally tying this in with how i see life right now. go forth and bloom.

I want to do something where the pictures are side-by-side so you can see all the pretty phases a flower goes through. Its very challenging, on some days, to remember. there have been mornings where I go out to the deck, look down at the yard and then remember - "I have to get out there" -- only to go back in the house to get the camera and while there a million things distract me. next thing I know its like 3 in the afternoon. so I have had to start the whole process over a few times. the late afternoon light is nice, dusk also, as is early morning {my yard is mostly shady at that time} but it does help if you're actually good at "remembering" - - I'm not that good at that sometimes, and so easily distracted :) this was taken today when I actually remembered so I had to do it right then and there. It was bright, sunny, middle of the afternoon sunlight. I used the setting on the camera for "flowers in bright sunlight" in the macro mode.

8/11/07

Summer's going by, and definitely we are trying to enjoy every last bit, slowly. Mostly poolside, reading, reading with the kids, or last weekend, the zoo. So blogging has taken a back seat for -- about a month. {hmmm, didn't seem like a month?} Garden is doing great this year. Myownfreshsalad. That is a joy! I love the color of this lily in my backyard.

In the meantime, I finally learned how to make a banner for the site.To this site for tutorials, I love that site because the ladies are the best at answering any questions. Lucky for me, the new blogger makes it a very, very easy, painless, satisfying experience. And I didn't need to haul out the programming for dummies book. I did doodle the little birdie (on already used paper, of course) then scanned it in. I can't believe I lived without a scanner for so long.

I also love her, and her and have tried some of their craft ideas. Cuz, well when you have as much patterned paper as me you better start using it :)Also still always taking alot {and I mean, alot} of pictures. [yes, we are a kodak family] I know I can do more with them. I always have a bunch of sites or other creative blogs I visit when I am feeling the lack of a creative spark, this week I popped into some of my all time favorites. Yesterday at this site I felt the spark for a summer mini album. I have this small album I picked up on clearance for really, really cheap. The kind of cheap you can't pass up. But then I hoard, I start stashing stuff, or maybe its the "gathering" that ali also describes on her site. In a kind of "I know I can do something with this later" trance I buy it. Then there's the "but I want to try something different, something else I've been afraid of trying" logic and I begin the hoarding and stashing again -- Lately this logic has helped me build my library of books about mixed media, collage, and screen printing and print making techniques. So I've been doing alot of reading about the different techniques. The collage and screen printing are making me swoon right now but I actually bought some of the beginner tools for printmaking, like making my own rubber stamps for instance, the carving is very relaxing, therapeutic for me, um, but the instant gratification of finishing something isn't always there. More time. Please, more time for mommy's stuff. {what mom doesn't wish for that one!} I can do this, I think, with more time.

Taking note on how it all applies to my life right now. How I have evolved as a person, mom, wife, and the bigger question of "what do I want to do with the rest of my life?" And so all of this is part of a bigger goal of mine -- because I have loved art all my life, loved drawing, doodling, all of it. Like the feel of paint on fingers, all of it messy, even the smell of not so nice smelling solvents [ okay, maybe shouldn't admit that one] The thrill of seeing something you made thrill someone else. I don't think they can bottle that one yet. Why didn't I do anything with this love of the art before? I guess I could write a whole lot about leaving the "career" and being a stay a home mom and the worry that sets in when you realize that a) no way can I go back to doing what I was doing and b) seven years is a very long time to be out of the "real" world of work. I get the jitters just thinking about it. Well that would make this a very long post. And really its not about dredging up what you could've done better/different it's about the "okay, well, your here now, and you can move forward from here." I remind myself that everything has a reason for happening. Everything has helped [not hurt] you get here, hasn't it? So it can't be all that bad.

So anyway, there's the "daily something" from ali's site that sounds like alot of fun [and I can accomplish] and then getting back to the "one little word" challenges. And there are others, when I can find time between all the stashing and the hoarding.